Q&A: Defining Project Tasks

How specifically and narrowly should project tasks be defined?

Project management best practice suggests that we break down our deliverables into smaller and smaller components until we get to actions or tasks that can be assigned and monitored.

How far we should go in breaking down our outcomes into tasks should be driven by task dependency and the needs of our project teams and stakeholders.

If the completion of a component of a larger task is necessary to start or complete another task (thus creating a task dependency), that larger task should be broken down to at least the level of those dependent components.

We should also consider how much direction our project teams will need to complete tasks. Expert team members may not need each task broken into specific actions unless tracking progress at the level of smaller tasks is desired by stakeholders or decision-makers.

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